NSSCAS Otjiherero First Language 8193 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Noun class concord

In Otjiherero every modifier and verb agrees with its noun's class by repeating that class's concord prefix; the prefix, not the real-world meaning, determines the form.

Class 1 and 2 concords

Human nouns take the subject concord u- in the singular and va- in the plural, whatever their prefix resembles; ovandu (people) therefore governs va- on the verb.

Infinitive class 15 (oku-)

The prefix oku- added to a verb stem forms the infinitive, as in okuranda 'to buy'; the form behaves as a noun and takes class 15 concord ku-.

Vowel length in Otjiherero

Vowel length is phonemic and written by doubling the letter (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu); shortening or lengthening a vowel can change a word's meaning or noun class.

The digraph tj

In Otjiherero orthography tj stands for a single consonant, a voiceless palato-alveolar affricate; it counts as one unit and is never split at a line break.

Independent pronouns in Otjiherero

Ami, ove, eye, atue, anue and avo are used for emphasis or contrast; ordinary reference to a noun is carried by its concord rather than by these pronouns.

Answering 'explain' questions

An explain item needs two components: the point or cause, plus the reason or textual evidence supporting it; a bare statement earns only part of the marks.

Inference answers

State the inference explicitly and anchor it in a quoted or closely paraphrased detail; an inference with no textual warrant is treated as unsupported and uncredited.

Tone and attitude questions

Identify the evaluative or emotive words in the passage, name the attitude they convey (critical, nostalgic, ironic), then justify that label with those exact words.

Vocabulary in context

Replace the target word with a candidate synonym and re-read the whole sentence; the substitute must fit both the grammar and the passage's argument, not merely a dictionary sense.

Summary focus instruction

The question's wording fixes what to include; if causes are asked for, effects, examples and background are excluded even when they are prominent in the passage.

One mark per point

Credit is given for distinct, relevant points, so overlapping statements are combined into one; repeating the same idea in different words earns nothing extra.

Own words rule in summary

Reproduced wording is not credited; only proper nouns, figures and technical terms that cannot be paraphrased may be lifted directly from the source passage.

Summary word limit

Only the words up to the stated limit are marked; material beyond it is ignored, so irrelevant or repeated content displaces points that would have scored.

Narrative causal chain

A narrative is held together by causation and time: an initiating problem, rising complication, climax and resolution, with one tense sustained throughout the telling.

Descriptive dominant impression

Description selects details that build one dominant impression, ordered spatially or by sense; an unstructured inventory of features scores low for organisation.

Argumentative essay frame

The structure is thesis, supporting claims with evidence, refutation of the opposing case, and a conclusion restating the position without introducing fresh claims.

Discursive essay balance

Both sides are presented fairly and in proportion, and the final position is reached by weighing the arguments rather than by merely repeating them.

Register in formal writing

Formal Otjiherero writing excludes slang, contractions and avoidable loanwords, and keeps address forms and honorifics consistent throughout the text.

Theme stated as a claim

A theme is written as a full sentence about the text, for example that tradition can survive displacement, not as a single topic word such as tradition.

Character trait plus evidence

Each trait attributed to a character is tied to a specific action, utterance or description in the text; unsupported adjectives on their own score nothing.

Narrator and point of view

Naming first- or third-person narration and whether the narrator is omniscient or limited explains what information the reader can and cannot access.

Setting and its function

Time, place and social world are discussed in terms of what they enable or constrain for the characters, not presented as a checklist of details.

Quoting a prescribed text

Short quotations are embedded inside the candidate's own sentence and then explained; long block quotations without commentary earn no additional credit.

Otjiherero dialect map

Standard Otjiherero is the central variety; Otjihimba (Himba of Kunene), Otjimbanderu (Mbanderu) and the Angolan Kuvale and Zemba varieties differ in lexicon and some concords.

Status of Otjiherero

Otjiherero is spoken in Namibia, Botswana and southern Angola; its ISO 639-3 code is her and it belongs to Guthrie zone R.30, group R.31.

Mukuru and ovakuru

Mukuru denotes the supreme being, whereas ovakuru, singular omukuru, denotes ancestors and elders; cultural readings of prescribed texts turn on this distinction.

Idiom meaning

An idiom's meaning cannot be derived from its individual words; the figurative sense is identified from context and then matched to the argument or theme under discussion.

Pluralising a sentence

Change the noun prefix and every dependent concord, including subject, object, adjective, possessive and numeral, or the resulting sentence is ungrammatical.

Active to passive

Move the object into subject position, add the passive extension -w- with final -wa, and mark the agent with ku in the transformed sentence.

Direct to reported speech

Shift pronouns, concords and tense, introduce the report with okutja or tja, and adjust time and place references to the moment of reporting.

Editing for concord

Check every verb against the class and number of its subject; concord slips rather than spelling errors account for most marks lost in editing tasks.